Kobe Bryant Describes Playing in Italy as "Very Possible"

Kobe Bryant Describes Playing in Italy as "Very Possible"

Virtus Bologna has offered Bryant $2.5 million to play in 10 games over 40 days during the NBA lockout.

Published September 29, 2011

There have been several teams courting Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant during the NBA lockout, but none has quite the pull of Italy — the place Bryant once called home.

Bryant said Wednesday that it is “very possible” he will play in Italy during the lockout. Virtus Bologna told the Associated Press it has made an offer of $2.5 million for 10 games over 40 days, from Oct. 9 to Nov. 16.

“It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,” Bryant said to the Gazzetta dello Sport during an appearance in Milan on Wednesday. “There’s an opportunity that we’ve been discussing over the last few days. It’s very possible and that’s good news for me.”

Bryant continued to offer hints that he might be returning to Italy, a country where he spent most of his childhood while his father played professional basketball there.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen over the next three or four weeks, but Italy has always been in my heart,” Bryant said.

“Italy is my home. It’s where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball,” Bryant said according to the Gazzetta. “All things that, when I came back to America, the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”